Kelvin v1.0: A Neural Pre-Encoder for H.264: A standards-compliant learned preprocessor with -27.62% BD-VMAF on UVG
Kelvin is a lightweight learned pre-encoder that sits in front of an unmodified libx264 encoder. It applies content-adaptive pixel adjustments, bounded at +/-1/255 per channel, so that the encoder allocates bits where they matter most perceptually, while emitting a standard H.264 bitstream compatible with every existing decoder, player, and CDN. On the seven-sequence 1080p UVG benchmark, Kelvin v1.0 achieves a mean BD-VMAF of -27.62% (7 of 7 wins) and BD-VMAF-NEG of -5.18% (6 of 7 wins) relative to baseline libx264 at preset medium. On the 30-sequence MCL-JCV public set (28 unseen by training), the same checkpoint wins on 28 of 30 clips by BD-VMAF; with the two diagnosable failures remove...
| Authors | Marco Graziano |
|---|---|
| Primary category | eess.IV |
| Published | 10 May 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 10 May 2026 |
Silytics shows public metadata from arXiv and links to the original. Information may be incomplete or out of date. Last refreshed 17 October 2026. Licenses and terms of the original apply to the work itself. Not financial, legal or professional advice.